Candyman. Candyman. Candyman. Candy….
That’s right! For our first episode of season two, we’re diving into the urban legend around the Candyman. We’ll look at the short story that inspired the movie, the urban legends it pulls from, and the true crime behind it all. So, buckle in and hold tight, it’s a wild ride.
This week’s Learn from the Best:
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Bonus links:
The Obscure Film Club
- The Tag-Along (2015)
This Taiwanese blockbuster is based on the legend of the little girl in red who follows those visiting the forest and snatches their souls away. In this case, she haunts a young professional man and his family, who have recently crossed paths with her in the woods, and slowly starts pulling them over into the spirit realm. - Deathdream (1974)
Canadian cult-classic Also called Dead of Night, this take on the W.W. Jacobs short story “The Monkey’s Paw” is about a soldier who dies in battle but is willed back to life by the pleas of his mother. But the soldier, Andy, isn’t the same when he returns, and is even aware that he is now the living dead. He requires blood to keep from decaying, and as his ghoulish behaviour persists, his family crumbles around him. - Ringu (1998)
Before American teens were being literally scared to death in Seattle after watching a bedevilled video tape in The Ring, a group of people were being terrorised by the original tape demon, Sadako Yamamura, in Hideo Nakata’s Ringu. The pale white ghost with the long, stringy hair — and one horrible eye peeking out from behind it — crawling out from inside a TV is a defining moment in horror, and one that kicked off a whole Stateside craze of adapting whatever Japanese horror story studios could get their hands on. Finally, the threatening chain letter was brought into the modern age! - The Boogeyman (1980)
The bogeyman (alternately spelled “boogeyman”) is one of the most persistent urban legends of all time and seems to have a variant in nearly all cultures across the world. This 1980 supernatural horror film appropriates the bogeyman concept and modifies it to tell the tale of two sisters who are terrorised by the ghost of their mother’s murdered boyfriend, who has recently escaped being imprisoned in a mirror in their house.
